In Japan, it would be difficult to suddenly achieve a 50-50 split in sharing housework. Still, the JOY team did not give up and worked tirelessly to promote a change in awareness among husbands and wives. To eventually succeed in changing attitudes, the first challenge was to change the stereotype of a Japanese couple.

Research aimed at gaining insights, including social listening, news analysis, media interviews, and consumers surveys was conducted for over half a year.

“Sharing household work, from a JOB to JOY.”

A message was developed that could be easily accepted by Japanese society in which housework, which was perceived by couples as a “troublesome JOB,” was changed to the position of “JOY.”

While listening to the opinions of sociologists, columnists, NPO representatives, and journalists strongly influential in the area of gender issues, which were derived through social listening, the correctness of the message and output were verified.

We persuaded Aflo, one of Japan’s largest image providers, to prepare 58 photos of couples having fun doing housework. These were made available free of charge for use on social media and in advertising.

We created a video entitled “Things Shared by Two People.” It contrasted images of a couple sharing past moments of fun against the current reality of the wife performing household chores alone, urging a change in awareness about sharing housework.

The campaign opened on November 22 (Good couples day), a day that garners the most interest related to couples in the year. Through our video and still picture initiatives, we made it easy for the media to find material related to “good couples.”

Furthermore, “JOY Shared Housework Marriage Notifications,” wherein couples vowed to share household chores, were distributed free of charge. It was also possible to submit these notifications to government offices nationwide.

The story was reported by 498 media sources, including major national newspapers and the public broadcaster NHK, which have a strong influence on Japanese public opinion.

More than 3,000 images were downloaded from Aflo.

Using a simple calculation, it has been estimated that currently one in thirty-eight people in the Japanese population have seen the video.

85% of husbands and wives responded that they wanted to “do their share of housework with a shared feeling of matrimony as a couple.”

4,500 JOY Marriage Notifications, wherein a couple can vow to share household chores and actually submit the notification to government offices, were downloaded.

Numerous journalists and influencers endorsed the project, and it inspired conversation and discussion on a variety of occasions.

After the project started, sales of JOY increased 40% over the previous year. P&G succeeded in changing Japanese awareness regarding housework from JOB to JOY.